Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-08-29
THE CABLES OF THE WORLD.
An Interesting Map of the Princi.
pal Lines of TelegraPic
Com mmuMi alton.

have a chart issued by the hydro
grapic office of the United States navy
in which are shown the submarine
cables of the world, with the sea coast
stations and the principal connecting
land lines. 1t is an interesting map
to any one, and I've no doubt of great
value to many. In fact, l should i'm
agine it would make one of the most
important charts that mariner could
have in his collection. Besides show
ing the localities of the lines table
of international rates is also given.
The conversation of which l had been
a listener, you may be sure, started
me on fresh investigation of my
chart. Let us take glance at to-
gether.
The United States, of course, is well
ribbed with wires, three lines OF which
stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific
coast, or at least practically so. Then
there are two running from the ex-
treme north to the Gulf, while an
other skirts the Pacific coast. Mexico
has number of lines, while the West
Indies appear to lack nothing in this
| ICCIttt. pONll NtdNtS vi ANoulI
ca as far down as Patagonia have tele-
graphic communication with the Rest
of the world, while running into Bra
zil from Lisbon, Portugal, there is a
pair of submarine cables. Did YOU
know there were as many as ten ca
bles connecting the new and the old
worlds? They don't run directly
across, either. The couple which
bring st. Pierre. on this side, and
Brest, France, together, sweep down
as far south as the latitude of New
York. OF course you understand that
in laying submarine cables the bed of
the ocean is first carefully considered.
Europe is crossed and recrossed,
while from st. Petersburg clear across
to the Pacific coast extends lonely
line of wire. Siberia is as bare of
poles and wire as the average old gem
tleman's head is of hair. So is the
greater portion of northern and west
ern Russia, the whole of interior
China and Africa, British America
and Alaska, and, of course, Greenland
and Iceland. Australia has several
lines of wire running its length, one
of which comes clear from the north
where the cable from British India
emerges from its watery bed, down to
Tasmania. Suppose, now, a California
merchant wants to telegraph toa corre-
spondent in New Zealand. That
isn't so far, geographically speak
ing, but from telegraphic point
of view it is far in the dis
tance. The California man would
send his message something like this 1:
He would start it across the con-
tinent, where it would take journey
under water, be flashed through Eu-
rope, again under water in the Medi-
terranean Sea, through the Suez
canal, across India, under the Bay of
Bengal, the Java Sea, a piece of the
Indian Ocean, and finally to the
operator at Palmerston, Australia. He
would start it across that continental
island to Sydney, where it would take
another bath, this time in the Pacific
Ocean, and finally it would be deliv-
cred to the man to whom it was adj
dressed. The message on which
Preller's murderer, Maxwell, was APP
pretended took something like this
route from st. Louis. You remember
he had taken steamer from California
to New Zealand.-"Observer," in
Philadelphia Call.